Treatment response of ethyl pyruvate in a mouse model of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease studied by hyperpolarized Xe MRI.

Purpose: The purpose of this work was to investigate disease progression and treatment response in a murine model of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) using a preclinical hyperpolarized Xe (HPXe) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) strategy.

Methods: COPD phenotypes were induced in 32 mice by 10 weeks of exposure to cigarette smoke (CS) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Efficacy of ethyl pyruvate (EP), an anti-inflammatory drug, was investigated by administering EP to 16 of the 32 mice after 6 weeks of CS and LPS exposure.